Lindsey Graham (R)

Positions & Statements on the Issues

[Editor's Note: On Monday, Dec. 21, 2015 Lindsey Graham announced the suspension of his presidential campaign via a youtube.com video posted to his campaign website. Senator Graham stated, "I am far more confident today that our party will reject the Obama doctrine of leading from behind and will provide the strong leadership America needs to restore our military, take the fight to our enemies and do what it takes to make our country safe and preserve our way of life. This is a generational struggle that demands a strategy and the will to win. I will continue to work every day to ensure that our party – and our nation – takes on this fight. I’m suspending my campaign, but never my commitment to achieving security through strength for the American people."]

"I don't think you're an indecent society when you take two men who broke into a family's home, tortured two young girls, raped them, burned them alive — I don't think that makes us indecent that they would be administered the death penalty."

[Editor's Note: Graham co-sponsored S.1921 ("A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and replacing such taxes with a national sales tax and a business tax") on Oct. 26, 2005, which would have repealed the corporate income tax and replaced it with an 8.4% business tax. The bill failed in the Senate.]

"Lower Rates While Limiting Distortions. Our individual and corporate marginal rates are some of the highest in the industrialized world, putting our economy and our workforce at an enormous competitive disadvantage. At the same time, the volume and scope of credits, deductions, and carve-outs create enormous loopholes and reward those who can afford an army of tax attorneys at the expense of working families and small businesses. We must lower marginal rates while streamlining the overall process and limiting the use of deductions and credits that are not cost-effective and have a distortionary effect on our tax system."

[Editor's Note: Graham co-sponsored S.1921 (“A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and replacing such taxes with a national sales tax and a business tax”) on Oct. 26, 2005 that would have repealed the federal income tax and replaced it with an 8.4% sales tax. The bill failed in the Senate.]

"We've got to figure out a way to fix this mess, because basically 50 people are running the whole show… You're going to have money dumped in this election cycle that's going to turn off the American people… There's going to be a need and a movement to try to control the money in politics."

Source: Andy Sullivan, "Here's One White House Hopeful Who Wants to Get Big Money out of Politics," reuters.com, Apr. 18, 2015

Not Clearly Pro or ConShould Felons Who Have Completed Their Sentences (Incarceration, Probation, and Parole) Be Allowed to Vote?

"Absolutely [voting rights should be reinstated to certain criminals after they get out of prison]... I'm cool with a process that would allow you to get from there to here. I believe in second chances... Nobody wants a mass murderer back voting. Nobody wants a rapist back voting... There is totally a distinction."

[Editor’s Note: We have classified Lindsey Graham as Not Clearly Pro or Con (NC) to our question, rather than Pro, because he says some felons who have served their sentences, such as mass murderers and rapists, should not regain the ability to vote.]

ProShould Voters Be Required to Show Photo Identification in Order to Vote?

“Thirty states have some form of voter ID requirement, so I think this is the future of the country, something we should embrace at the federal level, because elections do matter...

All the [9/11] hijackers had -- five or six -- had fake drivers licenses, so I think sanctifying the voting process in a way that makes sense, in a way that makes sure we're electing people based on registered voters, is a goal that we should all be concerned about...

I have no desire to suppress people from voting… I want as many people to vote as possible, and all of them to vote for me, and I know that's not realistic, and if you don't vote for me, that's okay."

"I think this is such a bad deal, it'd be hard to muster 20 votes [in the Senate]. Because what the president has done, he's taken the world's most destabilizing power, one of our chief antagonists - [Iran] killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq - and he's guaranteed that they're going to become a nuclear nation. Instead of dismantling it, this deal locks in their nuclear program."

"The two-state solution in my view would allow the Palestinians to live in dignity, to have sovereignty over their internal affairs. But it would be constructed in such a fashion that Israel would never have to lose sleep about this new state being able to destroy the State of Israel."

ProShould People on the No-Fly List or the Terror Watch List Be Allowed to Purchase Guns?

"I think anyone who's on the Terrorist Watch List should not lose their Second Amendment right without the ability to challenge that determination. I think, Senator Kennedy was on the Terrorist Watch List. There've been people come up on the watch list. I did not want to make that a — the basis to take someone's Second Amendment rights away. What I would suggest, is that if you come up on the Terrorist Watch List, you have the ability to say, 'No, I'm not a terrorist.' And that would be the proper way to do that."

"There is no part of society more vulnerable and in need of our protection than the unborn. The inalienable right to life of every innocent human being is an essential element of a civil society. From authoring the Unborn Victims of Violence Act to co-sponsoring the Partial Birth Abortion ban, Lindsey Graham has a long history of leadership on pro-life legislation. The Graham 20-Week Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is the most important federal pro-life effort today. This essential legislation, authored and sponsored by Lindsey Graham, bans abortions at 20 weeks, when a fetus is capable of feeling pain. It represents a critical step toward reaffirming the sanctity of life and preserving the basic constitutional rights of the most vulnerable. We need a president who always has, and always will, fight for the rights of the unborn."

[Editor's Note: Our question specifically asks whether abortion should be "legal." Thus, if a candidate states that they are pro-life but does not advocate changing the law to make abortion illegal (for example, by overturning Roe v. Wade or supporting a constitutional amendment to do so), then we list them as "Not Clearly Pro or Con."]

"Obama's radical policy to remake our healthcare system has left countless Americans shut out of their preferred plans with their preferred doctors, paying higher premiums and deductibles, and working fewer hours. We need to repeal and replace this deeply flawed program with real reforms that will improve access to quality, affordable care for all Americans."

"I wholly support the defunding of Planned Parenthood today and in the future. As president, I pledge I would never send a budget to Capitol Hill that contains a penny of funding for Planned Parenthood. Abortion related services comprise over 94 percent of Planned Parenthood’s business. We can kill their funding while maintaining a robust commitment to providing access to important preventative medicine and prenatal services.

Organizations that harvest body parts from unborn children is neither Planned Parenthood nor right and should not receive any support from the Federal Government. I’m running for president to create a culture of respect for human life and look forward to not only eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood, but also ending abortions at 20 weeks when a child can feel pain."

ProShould Checking Employee Immigration Status (as in the E-Verify Program) Be Mandatory for All Employers?

"Both sides of the aisle would like to see reforms to the electronic employment verification program... Ultimately, we would prefer to pass a bill requiring mandatory participation in the program. Since there is very little time left in this session, we urge you to support a straight reauthorization of E-Verify. Extending the program will keep employers accountable while giving them the tools needed to abide by the law in their hiring practices."

ProShould Undocumented Immigrants in the United States Be Allowed to Become Legal Residents?

"The flow of illegal immigration across our borders is a threat to both our economic and national security. We need a comprehensive plan to address this problem and it starts with securing our border. On the economic front, American workers, who are forced to pay taxes, are being cheated by illegal immigrants paid under the table. We should require illegal immigrants to register with the government to ensure they are paying taxes, learning English, undergoing background checks, and paying restitution for entering our nation illegally. Then, after living under our laws and our rules, we should require they wait for citizenship behind legal immigrants already in line. Finally, after going through this lengthy process -- including paying fines, paying taxes, learning English, and passing an American civics and assimilation exam -- which should take a decade or longer, an illegal immigrant could become a citizen, rather than remaining in the shadows and outside the arm of the law. Most important, we need presidential leadership on this issue to build consensus and craft solutions through constitutional means, not executive fiat."

"The one thing I've learned from Paris is that we need to have a timeout on bringing refugees into this country until we have a system that we think will work. So I'm calling for a timeout on Syrian refugees... I want an away game when it comes to ISIL, not a home game."

"If you're a waitress out there wanting more money, I'm not going to increase the minimum wage, I'm going to try to create an environment where somebody else will open up a restaurant across the street to hire you away at a higher rate, or they'll have to pay you more to keep you."

"When it comes to medicinal marijuana and [medical marijuana-derived] oil, I think politicians should embrace what makes sense... When it comes to issues like this, I don't want to be academic in thought. This is about people. This is about families with sick children. Why should someone in my position get in the way of helping a child, if you can reasonably and logically do it?"

"Now we're in a spot where, if we don't destroy ISIL soon, they are coming here. There are 3,500 American boots on the ground. You would never know it, hearing your president, but we need about 10,000 to turn the tide of battle in Iraq. Then there is nobody left, Dana, to train inside of Syria.

We spent $50 million training 54 people and they are down to four or five. They have been slaughtered. So we're going to need a regional army, the Turks, the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Egyptians get their armies up together and 90 percent of it will be them. They're going to pay for this war because we paid for the last two.

But 10 percent at least will have to be us and we're going in on the ground and we're going to pull the caliphate up by its roots and we're going to kill every one of these bastards we can find because, if we don't, they are coming here."

ConShould Interrogation Techniques That Some Consider Torture, Such as Waterboarding, Be a Legal Option?

"I believe in the Detainee Treatment Act, I believe the Geneva Convention applies, and every agency of the government has to comply with the laws that exist. I don't like having the Army Field Manual being the only way you can interrogate a prisoner.

I don't like advertising to the enemy everything we're going to do, so having a classified enhanced interrogation program that's compliant with the treaties and laws of the country is what I want. And that would exclude torture."

ProShould the United States Authorize the Keystone XL Pipeline to Import Tar Sand Oil from Canada?

“I was proud to vote today in support of the Keystone XL pipeline.

I was one of the first members of the United States Senate to visit the Canadian oil sands to see first-hand how this resource could benefit our country. The choice is simple - build the pipeline, create jobs in the United States, and lessen our dependence on oil from the Middle East. We need oil and Canada has the means to deliver it to us. There's nothing more common-sense than expanding our long-standing, mutually beneficial relationship with Canada.

The fate of Keystone XL is in President Obama's hands. If he rejects the pipeline it will be one of the most short-sighted decisions in memory."

ConWas the US Supreme Court Decision Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage a Good Decision?

"Strong families are the core of a strong America. Traditional marriage as a union between a man and a woman has been the bedrock of human civilization for thousands of years. It is an institution that benefits society in a way that no other relationship can. We must tirelessly support families, traditional values, and religious freedom against efforts to diminish and undermine them. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that state bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional, making the need to protect the right of every American to freely exercise sincerely held religious beliefs all the more urgent. We need a president who will staunchly defend these liberties and devote the necessary federal resources to ensure that no one's First Amendment right to freedom of religion is infringed."